Implementation period: 01/11/2021 – 31/12/2023
Funding stream: ERASMUS +
Project number: 2021-1-IE01-KA220-VET-000033351
PROJECT PRESENTATION
Among the most urgent challenges for hospitality professionals is the increasing demand for intercultural skills, as these are essential in the multicultural work environments in which they operate. In these contexts, where encountering different languages and traditions is a daily occurrence, developing greater intercultural awareness and being equipped with appropriate skills to support respectful and culturally effective interactions is crucial.
According to HOTREC (The Trade Association for Hotels, Restaurants and Cafés in Europe), more than one third of tourist accommodation managers (including owners) and employees have a limited level of cultural awareness and the general level of intercultural training is lower in the hospitality sector than in other sectors of the EU economy.
The InterCultural Hotel project aims to develop an innovative intercultural training framework dedicated to the hospitality operators, built on the real needs of professionals working in the sector. The ultimate goal is not to make hospitality staff and stakeholders (including owners) become experts on cultural issues, but to prepare them for critical situations that might occur when interacting with people from different cultural backgrounds, helping them to build a mindset based on greater intercultural awareness.
THE PROCESS OBJECTIVES ARE TO:
- Broaden the intercultural awareness of the hospitality staff;
- Establish a more creative and collaborative working environment in hospitality;
- Increase the competitiveness of the hospitality sector in Europe;
- To promote an inclusive and equitable workplace culture;
- Introduce an educational model that aligns with the realities of the hospitality industry; and where possible, include VET tutors and students;
- Offer localised and contextualised educational content;
- Prepare the intercultural and linguistic capacity of hotel staff for the upcoming tourism markets of Russia and China;
- Enhance guests’ cultural experience;
- Help build interpersonal connections and facilitate interpersonal processes in a multicultural workforce.
TARGETS:
- Vocational training in the area of cultural awareness and hospitality,
- Hospitality managers and staff, tourism stakeholders or social partners,
- Hotel and tourism business owners,
- Hospitality guests,
- Stakeholders in the tourism industry,
- Communities and regional governments whose economies depend on tourism.
PROJECT RESULTS:
RESEARCH
The first phase of the project will be devoted to an in-depth research on the current state of knowledge in the areas of intercultural training and to identify intercultural challenges and gaps that still exist in hospitality in the partnership Countries. The results of the research will be used to help the partners determine the specific needs of professionals in the hospitality sector, to define the training methodology to be followed and, finally, to improve intercultural training procedures on a practical basis.
STUDY
On the basis of the comparison and analysis of existing intercultural training programmes, the weaknesses and strengths of current cultural models will be identified as well as the features to be included in the new training framework.
TRAINING PROTOTYPE
A new intercultural training prototype, adapted to the local context of each partner Country, which is effective and reliable, will be developed to prepare hospitality workers for the critical situations that may arise when interacting with colleagues/guests from a different cultural background. The main objective is to offer a new innovative intercultural training that can positively influence hospitality staff so that they are not only more aware, but actually prepared to deal with intercultural issues that they might face daily in their workplaces.
PARTNERSHIP:
Coordinator: Munster Tech University – Ireland
Dekaplus Business Services – Cyprus
EDEX EDucational EXcellence – Cyprus
CWEP – Poland
OECON management & consulting group – Greece
BDF Stichting Business Development – Netherlands
Plovdiv University – Bulgaria
Klaipedos Turism – Lithuania
LABC srl – Italy
Institute for Tourism Celje – Slovenia
FURTHER INFORMATION
Website: https://intercultural-hotel.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InterCultural-Hotel-100464895910747
Platform: https://ich.erasmus.site/
APP:
-App Store: https://testflight.apple.com/join/XN5IUl4r
-Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.dcnet.ich
